Millennium Paella

I had the weekend to myself, without much testing to do. I’d sort of decided to spend Saturday slaving over a hot stove, but when I saw how sunny it was, I had a change of plan. I still wanted to cook myself something nice, but didn’t want to spend the whole day doing it.

I decided to try the paella from the Millennium book. It’s actually one of the quicker dishes from Eric Tucker’s two books, and as long as you do a bit of planning it comes together quite quickly at the end.

It’s based on a saffron rice pilaf, which I made earlier in the day. I also home smoked the tofu at the same time – and it was the best smoked tofu I have ever done. I’ll do a tutorial on what I did when I next do it and get some photos. I didn’t take any because I’ve done it loads of times and didn’t expect it to turn out so well. There was a secret part to it, which was just a happy find.

The other main flavours of the dish included arame seaweed, capers, orange zest, chile flakes, courgettes, cumin seeds and black olives. Looking at the amount of seaweed after it had soaked, I suspected it would be too overpowering, but it just provided a really gentle taste of the sea, which was perfect.

It was served with a chile tofu aoli. I’m always a touch suspicious of silken tofu where it’s standing in for mayonnaise or sour cream. This is probably a hangover from a very early vegan brush with a Sarah Kramer recipe where the tofu ended up tasting resoundingly of… tofu, and had to be thrown away. However, this was deliciously creamy, garlicky and fresh, and worked perfectly with the deep flavours of the paella.

For a really tasty dish, from a book renowned for difficult dishes, this one really didn’t take too long. You don’t need to smoke your own tofu so don’t let that put you off. You can use shop bought smoked tofu or a seitan sausage. I would highly recommend giving this a go. And look! The recipe is available on googlebooks here – no excuses!

Saffron and butternut squash risotto

My husband’s dislike of vegetables is split into two levels – the “won’t touch with a bargepole” sweetcorn, peas, parsnips and brussel sprouts, and the “would never choose to eat but don’t mind them if they’re well disguised” beetroot, sweet potatoes, squash and pumpkin.

So when he was away the other night and I fancied something comforting, I found this recipe which contained both sweetcorn and butternut squash and decided to treat myself. It’s one of the relatively easy recipes in the Millennium cookbook and I always like to find a recipe for risotto that is tasty in its own right without needing cheese.

This risotto is really rib sticking and hugely tasty. I think I was a touch heavy handed with the saffron – I seem to remember it was the Masterchef judges who said that if you can taste saffron in a dish, you’ve put too much in. I know that sounds daft but after I’d eaten this, I knew what they meant. That could easily be my fault not the recipe though. I would have served this with some braised greens if I’d had any and I think they’d have gone together well.

I always feel good when I cook something from either of the Millennium books and this was no exception!